Papa Dan goes full on wacko and prepares to squash the bugsters that are the Kamen Riders. He henshins to Chronus and Hiiro, Kiriya, Taiga and Kuroto all henshin as well. Emu can only watch as the others valiantly battle Papa Dan only to be forced to dehenshin. Or in Kuroto’s case, die one more time.

Emu screams out in frustration and charges at Papa Dan only to get swatted back. Papa Dan mocks Poppy and Parado’s deaths. That enrages Emu even more. But Papa Dan pauses and approaches Emu. He prepares to kill him for good, but Emu somehow is able to move. His eyes flash red and he punches Papa Dan’s Bugvisor, smashing it and sending Papa Dan flying into the Chronicle clock.

The others (minus Kuroto) get up and join Emu. They all henshin to Level 2. Emu hops onto Kiriya and the decisive battle begins.

Emu calls Kuroto who Rider Kicks through a pipe. Hiiro and Taiga get in their shots at Papa Dan while Emu revs Kiriya up into Papa Dan’s face. Emu hops off and takes on Papa Dan himself.

Papa Dan can’t believe he is being overpowered by Level 2s. Emu says it’s because Parado gave his life to suppress the virus. And with a Mighty Critical Strike, Emu is able to lay a perfect hit on Papa Dan, causing him to dehenshin.

Emu declares a Game Clear. Papa Dan is still perfectly alive. Emu says they will let the Ministry deal with him.

Papa Dan says the Ministry won’t be the one handing out judgment upon him. He will do it himself as well as on the people they had hoped to revive. He tells them that they gave up resurrecting the dead by defeating him in this way. With a laugh, he stabs himself with the Gashat and contently dissolves into the air.

Emu meets with Kyotaro-sensei on the roof to say that Chronicle is over and everyone has been cured. Kyotaro-sensei says he is happy to see the video game-loving kid from 16 years ago has become a great man.

Emu says none of this would have been possible without Poppy and Parado. Kyotaro-sensei asks Emu to continue his work with the CR, especially since the Bugster Virus still exists, even in a weak form. The battle against Game Disease continues.

Emu has one request for Kyotaro-sensei.

Down in the CR, Director Kagami tells Hiiro and Kiriya that the Ministry hopes to develop a drug to counter Game Disease in the future. To do so, they will be working with GENM Corp. Director Kagami hopes Kiriya will be able to specifically help using his expertise.

Director Kagami says the Ministry has also allowed Taiga to continue his work as a Game Disease specialist.

Nico has returned to school and tells her friends that she’s officially been cured and discharged thanks to her awesome boyfriend doctor. Her friends say it’s time for them to choose their career paths. They mention Nico has a lot of wiggle room since she’s so rich from all the money she’s made as a pro gamer that she won’t even have to work anymore. Nico reveals she’s put most of her savings into (GENM) stocks.

Kyotaro-sensei and Emu hold a press conference briefing the public on the Bugster Virus. Emu announces Chronicle is over, but the dead “vanished” people due to the virus have not been revived yet. The CR believes that those people are suffering from Undead Game Disease.

Emu explains that even though Bugsters are made of data, they also have kokoros and are just as alive as any human. The same goes for those who have disappeared.

Emu shows the press the Gashats where their data, and hearts, are stored in. With medical advancement happening every day, Emu says the CR is confident that they will be able to find a cure for the afflicted undead people within 5-10 years. It is their responsibility as doctors to continue fighting for their patients.

Emu names all those who have disappeared because of Game Disease (including Kiriya, Kuroto and Papa Dan) and promises one day they will be brought back to flesh and smiling.

Kiriya meets with the new GENMN CEO, Tsukuru with a table of cheeseburgers, as they get to work on the cure. Tsukuru says he was nominated for the position by the new majority shareholder (Nico).

Taiga is treating a patient at Hanaya Hospital when Nico arrives with her diploma wanting to apply for a job here.

Hiiro shows new surgical department interns how to cut into a cream puff before he longingly looks at a photo of Saki.

Emu heads down to the CR and hears Poppy being very loud. He finds Kuroto playing with a fully restored Poppy. She happily jumps out of the game.

Kuroto explains that he caught a little speck of her on his hand and using that was able to restore her.

Poppy says of course this means she is not alone. Kuroto points out that Emu was able to henshin even after Parado died. That’s because Parado must have infected Emu once again with a speck as well.

Emu calls for Parado and he comes out of Emu’s body.

Emu and Parado are all smiles when suddenly they get an emergency call.

Later, Kuroto shows Emu, Poppy and Parado that he has made a Kamen Rider Build Gashat.

Episode Thoughts and Season Review-ish

And that brings us to the end of Ex-Aid. The series at least. Apparently the movie really is the “True Ending”…

But we can ignore that for now. This was a fine finale for the series itself. Like last week though, I again felt a little underwhelmed even though things were wrapped up well, for the most part.

Basically, Papa Dan again survived another finishing attack only to go and kill himself instead. Probably tired of getting being hit with finishers every episode. But also to spite Emu and the others by taking all the data of the undead people with him. I feel like that should’ve been a much bigger shock at that moment. But it didn’t matter since Emu had the case full of Gashats later anyway.

But Papa Dan will probably pop up in the future most likely. Especially when apparently no one actually dies as long as Emu has anything to say about it. lol (There’s three V-Cinema movies coming next year, after all.)

I did very much enjoy necktie-wearing Emu at the press conference. It’s nice when remembering we first meet him as a clumsy t-shirt-wearing and video game-playing resident.

But like I’ve mentioned in a broken record kind of way, in a season with doctors and medicine as half of the central theme, leaving open the possibility of people being resurrected from video game/computer data is very interesting. I kinda prefer if it wasn’t that way. Especially when death has been pretty final in every Kamen Rider season I’ve seen so far (everything since OOO), if I remember correctly. At least, outside of the random “Let’s bring them back for a little while, but keep them dead” cameos in movies and stuff. And of course except for the immortal Takeru. Lol

But with the theme of medicine and video games, I think they were doing a good job of making the distinction between the finality of death in real life and the simplicity of death/restarting a game/Continues in video games. I know one of the central plots was to merge the two through Chronicle. But I dunno. Since one of the main goals was to put an end to Chronicle, I think a more impactful result would’ve been to accept the fact that people died because of it.

On one hand, I think maybe part of the reason that isn’t the case is to help Kuroto’s redemption. He’s the one responsible for actually making Chronicle work, after all. (Not to mention he did kill Kiriya on Christmas of course.) But if none of the people are actually dead, then he’s alright. And that’s important since fans loving characters apparently influenced some story decisions this season. 😉

But again, the finality of death would’ve been a very deep and meaningful discussion to have on this season. Especially with the writing actually being there for the main overarching, season-long plot.

Anyway, I almost forgot Emu can’t henshin without Parado, but as soon as those eyes flashed red, I knew Parado would pop up sooner or later. Poppy too. So that final scene was predictable when I wish it was a legit MaGMCM.

Speaking of, for the 3rd season in a row, the finale didn’t have a MaGMCM for me. The last such finale was Gaim‘s. And believe it or not, the most emotional finale for me was Wizard‘s. lol

I honestly didn’t remember any of the loved ones that appeared except for the mom with the bike, but I like that they were there. I didn’t realize only about a dozen or so people “died” from Chronicle?

I also didn’t realize Nico was loaded. And not just some little bit of prize money from tournaments (which, these days, is actually a big amount of money), but enough money to become majority stakeholder in a company. Kind of a letdown not hearing she’s hoping to become a nurse. Maybe in the epilogue movies.

Dan Masamune was a worthy final big bad just from sheer irredeemable madness. But things definitely went around in circles these last couple of episodes. I honestly didn’t really feel any epicness in the events of the last arc, even though pretty much everything had some sort of foundation set throughout the season.

The level of plot cohesion is definitely one of Ex-Aid‘s strongest points. The story definitely developed at a steady pace and maybe lost a little bit of steam a few episodes too early. But things being pulled out of thin air were at a minimum, if at all, compared to the last two seasons.

The overall concept of Ex-Aid was interesting and engaging for most of the season. There’s certainly things I wished they had done differently or stories (and characters) that should have been expanded on and developed more. But I definitely don’t feel the same level of disappointment and regret about what could have been like I did at the end of Drive and Ghost.

I may not be as high on Ex-Aid as other Rider fans seem to be. But the season worked out well, was enjoyable, featured a great cast and some very cool toys. That’s more than you can ask for in a season.

…

I certainly hope the True Ending movie and the three V-Cinemas…
… actually add to the story and maybe even tie everything up a little neater too. NOT repeat the clusterfrak of Ghost‘s Specter movie which still annoys and angers me so much. lol

That final action scene has got to be one of the best finale fights that I have seen in the last few seasons. It’s really well-choreographed, definitely up there with Gaim’s ffinal Kouta vs. Kaito battle as one of my favorites. And Dan Masamune is the epitome of a sore loser with that “rage quit” suicide of his.

Asuna and Parado coming back to life is kinda anti-climacti, but definitely makes a lot of sense. If there is one thing that I really like about Ex-Aid’s plotting, they actually laid out well a lot of the mechanics that would make their twists feel logical. There is very little in the way of asspulls here.

But like I’ve mentioned in a broken record kind of way, in a season with doctors and medicine as half of the central theme, leaving open the possibility of people being resurrected from video game/computer data is very interesting. I kinda prefer if it wasn’t that way.

There is actually a tinge of tragedy here. Think of this way: while there is the possibility of them finding a cure for those who vanished, there is also the possibility that they won’t. Sure, they might be optimistic now, but what if in the five or ten years that Emu says they weren’t able to find that cure? That is were hopelessness really sets in (and that would be a good V-cinema sequel). Also, even if we go by Kuroto, Kiriya and even Saki being revived, those who do get resurrected might not even be human anymore.

As for the series as a whole, one thing I would have to fault it with is that it has the tendency to start plotlines and then never progress with those outside of the arcs where they where introduced. Case in point was Asuna/Poppy’s connection to Kuroto and the bugsters. Oddly enough this might be due to Ex-Aid’s interesting predicament in that they seem to have put in too much material for its story. I say that because, unlike Ghost or Drive where there are a lot of moments where I felt like the story is just going in circles, I didn’t really felt that with this series.

Ex-Aid’s cast were also great. Emu is really an engaging protagonist. And, oh by, Dan Kuroto has got to be the most fun charactter in a long while. Tetsuya Iwanaga seemed to have had a lot of fun portraying him. I kinda wish they had given a bit more to Asuna, Taiga, Nico, and the bugsters, but eh, I can live with it for now. Definitely a fun ride with the series.

Yeah, there was definitely a lot of potential for a bunch of different stories. But for most of the supporting characters, they went for the more simpler stories I think. Ones that could be done in a few episodes.